Tractor Decision

I found out yesterday the old JD 2240 is toast. Had planned on doing a tractor upgrade in a about 3 years but I guess that idea is out the door now.. I know this is beat to death but I am mechanically inept and need a used tractor that will get me through the next 15 or so years as trouble free as possible. Anyway, I would like to spend around $15,000-$20,000, need round 50 HP and gotta have a front end loader.I have about 20 acres to mow, plant 8 acres of summer crops,plant about the same in fall/winter plots and other than that just the normal mowing, grading etc on 320 acres.. Probably don't rack up 100 hours a year in tractor time.So what says the Aldeer peanut gallery.

What's wrong with the 2240?

Find a gently used JD 5205 ( or similar model ) 4X4 with loader.

Just remember tractors are green trucks are red and you'll be ok.

X12

No you didn't.....

Money is green and Green Tractors are going to separate you from it.

They'll also keep that green value at the end too

For Sale:

Green Tractor
No Seat or Steering Wheel

Previous owner lost their arse and didn't know which way to turn.

Well first off it burned up a little due to a mouse/bird nest under the hood. Spent 3-4 months trying to find someone to work on it because my really good old guy died and spent boo coo bucks replacing all wiring, injectors, etc, got it running and radiator blew out.More money and time on radiator and yesterday a new mechanic finds block is cracked or head blown or something equally bad which will cost more time to fix and is most likely not cost effective to fix. All of which I was dealing with from 350 miles away. And I gotta plant in 3 months. At some point I will get the old tractor looked at and fix it.The only thing better than one tractor is having two.When I do get up there I have to have everything running or important things don't get done.

Red tractor for sale. Won't pull shucks ain't worth a shucks and can't find parts for this hunk of shucks.

My red tractor will run your green tractor of similar size into the ground.

I think that's going to be hard to do, if you get 4x4. You can find lots of 2wd tractors for your budget, but resist the urge. It almost got me, glad it didn't.

Because they're worth it.

What you want for it? I'll give you a fair price.

Sure

I'll bet you $10,000 that ain't true.

I'll agree with color of tractor but anything red (especially football teams) is the spawn of Satan. Trucks should be black.

I've never been unhappy with anything I ever bought made by Kubota. They just crank, run, and do exactly what they were designed to do.

I have been happier with our small ( 23 hp) hydrostatic drive tractor than I would have believed possible. If I buy a 30-50 HP unit, it will be orange and have the full hydro drive.

Tractorhouse.com has a bunch of listings for orange and green, and Snead in Centre, AL has a smoking deal on an MX5200 Kubota with factory warranty until March.

If you were closer I'd show you a great 30hp JD with everything to go with it.

I was green my whole life until recently and went red.

I have 2 orange ones and a farm full of green ones. They are tools and I don't baby any of them and I can't say nothing bad about any of them. Just make sure you got the size tractor for size job you have.

If you go red does that mean you're embarrassed?

No. I got friends who run em. One is legally colorblind so he can't help it.

There's a reason that John Deere is the most popular farm tractor in North America.

We've got access to several tractors- all green. But I will add that they're all a number of years old. jd ain't the only tracs made but you will mostly lose money on anything other than green when it comes trade or sell time.

What is this thread about?

Red like Massey or that Indian garbage they advertise on tv. If it isn't green and yellow it ain't worth a cornbread f.

Motors and the hydraulics are good on the red but the rest of the machine is junk (metal parts, front ring gear, housing around front drive shaft, hub assembly, the whole steering console fell off where it hinges forward and backwards, the brake pedals have had to be replaced in order to use the parking brake because the metal wore so bad the parking brake would not work, both tyrods have had to be replaced because they broke, and you are looking at a minimum usually of a week or more to get parts. Oh and the tractor only has 2,000 hours on it. None of the switches work and the key switch has been replaced once. This is my dads tractor and he bought it new. Total POS! It might be ok if you just used it every now and then but if you're depending on a machine to make a living your gonna go broke trying to run red.


Oh and for the red tractor guys try to bushhog some waist high weeds and grass with the little fuzzies and see how long it takes before you run hot.

The Deere cab is more operator friendly than any other on the market too.

I’ve been on a JD 55 hp and 85 hp that wouldn’t hold up in the white fuzzies for any more than an hour or slightly longer at a time before needing to cool down, or they’d simply bog down and overheat. . I’ve already cut over 40 acres of HEAD high white fuzzies with red and haven’t missed a lick. I drove and looked at a bunch of tractors for months before going Mahindra, and I can confidently stand behind my decision and glad I did. In the HP class I was looking at the choice was pretty easy if I started comparing apples(red) to apples(green). These arguments are about like the Ford vs Chevy people. It’s pointless to argue. I saw things on the new greens I was not a fan of and things I really liked about Mahindra. So far im quite pleased with the outcome and everybody I know who owns one talks highly of them, soooooo

Yeah my dad talks highly of his too. the fuzzies are bad for any tractor no doubt but the one I'm familiar with is a 4110 ( 40 horse) and that things radiator will clog up the quickest of any tractor I have ever seen. It had a bad design on the air flow to the radiator. But I will say this, that tractor holds 7 gallons of diesel fuel and you would be hard pressed to run that out in a full days work. I've never operated another make of tractor that did that good on fuel consumption.

Always knew you was a commie

Yeah you gotta clean those screens OFTEN on any of them in that fuzzy stuff. One thing I don’t like about the Mahindra is the process you gotta go through to get to the trash guards in the first place. It ain’t easy.

Always knew you was a complainer.

For calling you commie?

Nah. You just a generalized complainer. You’re complaining now.

Theys several different red tractors out there and i cant speak for any but mahindra and ither than some ergonomic stuff they are good machines. I like jd but they aint that great other than good resale and warranty stuff they are very dealer oriented just like every tractor sold. My brother is having issues with his jd dealer and he has already spent bout 185k and fixin to spend about 200k on them and he cant get the dealers to get off their lazy butt to do nothing. Theyve pretty much(and most every other john deere dealer ive messed with..bout 5 ofem) think...well..we sell john deere soooooo...like...we're the best and stuff...soo buy our stuff with our outrageously over priced parts and service...and..we'll take all your money..sorry...but we're not sorry. We have 4 jd bigger than 100hp at work and they do well but they tear up pretty regular and arent problem free..at all. We got one 100hp kubota..good tractor but stays in the shop due to emissions crap..and thats alot of the issues with our jd's too. My brother also had several issues that should have been covered under warranty that the dealer gave him as much trouble as they could. Soo..i see it like this..if i was a pro farmer and used a tractor everyday commercially and new that there was a good chance that theyd eventually give me issues..i may go with a big name just soo ive got a rock solid warranty on my big equipment. As far as anything less than 80 or 90hp im gonna buy a mahindra probly just cause there emissio s system doesnt do a buncha gobbldy gook and i feel like that is a weak link iin diesel engines today. I ran a 34hp mahindra 1533 and put about 150hrs on it in 5 months....i ran it HARD!...and did stuff with it it was not even remotely designed for...all i managed to do to it was bust the weld on the corner of the bucket. We got a kubota of the exact same size..and it just cant hang..still a dang fine machine, its just not as strong. The dealer this tractor was bought from is top notch red carpet as well. Here in the real world id really prefer a mid 90's ford 4x4 bout 60hp or a jd of around the same era...i aint got much love for anything made past bout 06.

This X 100.

A 5000 series Deere (or similar weight in other tractor brands) is heavy enough to work and use the loader without 4wd. That size tractor is a completely different animal than a compact utility tractor, where 4wd is essential to get acceptable performance with a loader.

Im starting to do some of my own learning and research on all colors of tractors because I will be buying one at some point in the next year. Right of the bat I was stunned at the price difference when comparing tractors of different brands but in the same horse power class.

You can't just go by HP. There are 50 hp compact tractors and 50 hp utility tractors. The utility class will weigh much more have heavier frame, gearing and such. That's what RobertD's post is getting at. All those horses don't do much good if you can't get them to the ground. Granted, there are $ differences when comparing like machines. The green and orange ones tend to be higher.

Everybody knows that REAL tractors are blue.

You could take that budget and completely rebuild your 2240 and have a way better tractor then anything you buy new. The kubota mx services like a mx5200 is their cheaper line and if your going to have the same functions with no modern stuff you'd be better off with your old 2240

Get a John Deere 5210, 5310, 5220, 5320. You should be able to find one of these in your price range in good shape. A 25 series would also be good but may be a little out of your price range.

All you green guys must not have to deal with Tri green

We rarely deal with the dealership at all.
That's another reason to buy green tractors.

Not if I can help it.

shucks tri green won’t even have filters in stock

Yep , went in the Scottsboro store mid- last summer for a set of blades for a MX-7 bush hog , of course they didn't have them . Went down the street and got a set of Bush Hog brand that would fit, cheaper than JD to boot.

Just gotta know who to deal with at trigreen.

Are the 5055e as good as the older 5205?

Mr. Brad, in all seriousness if your looking to buy a tractor, you can't go wrong with an older green or blue. You can buy these models from lots of places- by older I mean 2000 or even 80's models. These machines can take thousands of hours providing they've had reasonable care & you ain't likely to ever wear one out by the use you describe-as long as you by smart.There is some Ford models that end in 10 ( 3910, 6610 for example) that you may want to avoid. These models are good running tracs, but they have a serious power steering issue that is really hard to fix. They pour ps fluid from both the reservoir on the side of the engine as well as under the steering wheel.We've put seals in em to no avail. I personally don't know of one that doesn't leak once they get a few hours on em. That 2240 you have, even though you say has had it, those models are gems. I would spend 15 grand for another good used 2240 before I'd spend a dollar towards a new model of any brand. Way too many reasons to mention for the hats off to the older tracs. They be easy to work on as well for the most part. I can tell you for sure that outback has put many an hour on a 2240 that was owned by a close friend , and am sure he'd tell you they don't make em like those anymore. Just my case nickels worth.

Google JD5055e problems or something like JD Indian built tractor problems. Look at how many are for sale versus the old 5,000 series . Word is JD is missing the mark on their utility tractors made in India, quality is just not there .

I'm guessing a lot of that has to do with the older tractors don't have the emissions crap on them. For example...the last year the 5205 was manufactured, was also the year that the emissions standards went into effect.

Bingo! But it's not just the emissions junk. There's also a load of unnecessary computer crap on the new tractors. Dainty electronics ain't gonna hold up in a dusty 104 degree hayfield.
And that's why we run older tractors, and rarely have any problems with them.

They have other issues as well , hydraulics . There's a guy on you tube that chronicles his problems, band new and had a bunch of leaks .

I'm re-doing an Alis Chalmers 180 right now. When I say re-do I mean sound mechanically, field ready and likely my own rattle can paint job. Possibly throw some new stickers on it. I've got about $5k in it so far. Hopefully it won't be a POS I've never had one of these before but seems to be easy to work on mechanically. We didn't have any Alis tractors when I was a kid. Next I want to do a White after this one. We had an Oliver 1850 and a White 2-105 as we turned into the 1980's. We had 10-15 tractors at any given time from 50 to 250hp.

I have never thought any particular make was better than another. It has always depended on which models you were comparing. They all had things they tried that didn't really pan out like IH's TA was not the most reliable nor was Ford's Dual Power both after years of use though. The reason Deere has been so successful is in their ability to make better business decisions at the corporate level. They had the vision at the top to navigate some tough markets... and whoever was running that place in the 1980's deserves all the Green tractor fan's admiration and appreciation. They also don't leave their customers hanging. They might want to charge you $75 for a 12" piece of wire with a funny connector on the end of it, but at least they have the wire and you can get it. Other brands that have been long gone for 40 years... good luck with that if you are a weekend food plot warrior.

I don't think the OP is looking for something as old as I would suggest given the budget. He needs something that can be dealer serviced. That's an easy decision. Find the nearest dealer you want to work on the tractor and buy one they can work on. Doesn't have to be a new machine only something they can get parts for and service. $15-20k is healthy budget for a weekend warrior. I could get one helluva tractor for food plots and small acreage maintenance for that all day long.

I'm looking for a good used tractor with a power reverser type trans on it. Which one(model) would you recommend?

JD 5320 is what comes to mind. Has a true power reverse, bout 65 HP, good machine with none of that new fangled computers and EPA crap.

Any of the 2000-2007 5,000 series are good tractors. I'm not for sure what all has a power reverser , may be all of the 20s? My 5205 has a sycno reverse or something like that, I can idle down and go from forward to reverse with out the clutch . I usually keep the RPMs up and clutch it though.

I don't know how to really suggest one over another because placement of the controls is the key and what one guy likes the next guy doesn't like as much, etc. Newer tractors have levers all over the dern place. Are they in the right spot for you? I think that depends on the person. You really need some seat time before you can make a definitive determination. Everyone is just different in their motor functions and what makes sense brain to hand.... based on the layout of the controls. I don't think the color paint makes much difference here.

I like the left hand reverser on a hyd shuttle and my controls where I never move my hand below my wrist for 3pt or hyd levers. I grew up on green so it's always been imprinted in me. My starter tractor was a kubota and it worked fine. But the controls always had me reaching and grabbing wrong areas. I'm back at home now.

Thanks for all the info. I broke down and called the dealer. Gonna see what it will take to get it running. May be late on plots though. They won’t even pick it up for 3-4 weeks.